The three tracks from the forthcoming album are “The Ballad of Morton Candell”, “Flowers” and “A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea Part II”.

The session was engineers by the very talented Simon Mateer at My First Recorder Studio in Belfast.

I hope you enjoy!

Tom

In the mean time I thought I’d share this solo acoustic version of a brand new song I demoed last weekend. There’s a fairly lengthy disclaimer that comes with it but I hope you can get an idea of where I’m going with this tune.

Two tracks from our stripped back performance at the AU Magazine show at the CQAF have been included in the NVTV broadcast of the concert. Also featured are the awesome And So I Watch You From Afar and, one of my personal absolute favourite new bands, the Benjamins. I blogged about it at the time and you can read that post here.

Tom

The third and final of the Fighter pre-release free download tracks is now available over on my myspace page. This week it’s an acoustic version of Promise Me recorded live in session from Across the Line on BBC Radio Ulster. As with the previous tracks, it will be available for one week only.

 It’s been brought to my attention that non-myspace users can’t download music from the site, if this applies to you, you can download the track from pennydistribution.com. 

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the tracks released in weeks one and two and I hope your appetites are whetted for the single release on 23^rd June. More exciting news on that to come.

 ‘Til then,  

Tom

Hey folks, 

So, my cover of “That’s All There Is” by Nina Nastasia is no longer available for download, but do not fret as quite simply, that’s not all there is. We’re now into the second week of our free download releases in the run up to the Launch of the “Fighter” single. For the next week you, dear friends, will be able to download a cover of Van Morrison’s “Slim Slow Slider” recorded live at the Astral Weeks Revisited concert at the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast on January 5th. 

It was a wonderful event which I was very proud to be a part of. Astral Weeks is a remarkable album and Van Morrison is an exceptional creative figure whose music has enriched my days from a very early age. The evening was a celebration of the 40^th Anniversary of the album and this track, my small tribute to a true legend. 

Of all the songs on Astral Weeks, “Slim Slow Slider” is perhaps the odd man out. In contrast to the free flowing, almost stream of consciousness approach of many of the songs, it has four short, compact verses. I think it was this that attracted me. In spite of its limited word count, it conveys untold emotional depth. And that’s the style of writing I aspire to: maximum narrative and depth in as few lines as possible. 

Mr Gerry Bannon worked the front of house mix on the night and Rocky, Ben & Barrett at Start Together recorded the show and did the post production. 

As before, I hope you all enjoy my rendition. You can download it now from my Myspace music player.   

Tom  

In the run up to the release of Fighter/God Says (the upcoming split seven inch single I’ll be releasing with Escape Act) I’m going to be giving away some free music. For the next three weeks I’ll be making three session/live tracks available for free download through my Myspace music player, each only available for one week. Each track includes includes full color artwork, lyrics and track notes.

This week it’s a cover version of Nina Nastasia’s “That’s All There Is” from her wonderful “The Blackened Air” album. To any fellow Nina Nastasia fans out there, I really hope I haven’t butchered it!

This track was recorded for the BBC’s Across the Line show in January of this year, a couple of weeks before the Fighter recording sessions at Start Together. The BBC session was produced by Paul McClean and engineered by Ciaran Tracey. 

Download it now from my Myspace. 

Tom 

I’m very excited to announce that my new single “Fighter” will be release on limited edition 7 inch vinyl on 23rd June. It’s available for pre-order from today from this site.

It’s being released through Penny Distribution and it’s a split double A side single with “God Says” by Escape Act on the flipside.

The single costs £3.50 including P&P for sales within the UK and Ireland and £4.50 for the rest of world.

If you order now you can download a zip file containing digital copies of “Fighter” & “God Says” as well as two free studio tracks, Promise Me by yours truly and “Everyone Got Shot” by Escape Act. You can listen to “Fighter” and “Promise Me” on my myspace page. The vinyl single will be posted to you on 23rd June.

Thanks for reading,
Tom

More news on the single will follow shortly.